Beyond Light And Dark: Forging Our Own Path
by Rago Dragovian
Summary: Rey took his hand and the world shattered in their wake.


Summary: Rey took his hand and the world shattered in their wake.

A/N: Star Wars isn't mine. It rightfully belongs to Disney, which is superior to that piece of garbage George Lucas.

* * *

Rey gazed at his outstretched hand and pushed down the urge to immediately reject the monster before her. The bottom-half of Snoke fell off the chair in their periphery, the blaster fire continued shelling the rebel transports, and unbeknownst to them; Finn and his friends faced utter peril. She gazed upon Kylo Ren's eyes; the same ones that held the look of dread and loneliness that she had lived with all her life.

"Why me?"

Ben Solo blinked. "What?"

"Why me? Why the interest in me? I'm no different from any of the other people that the First Order or the Republic labeled scum and left to rot in planets that people did little more than pity. There's millions like me across the galaxy." She said after clearing her throat. She forced the words out. "It's . . . it's because I have the force, isn't it? What you want is to nurture my power, nobody had an interest before then. I'm just a convenient puppet for you all to mold. Just like with Supreme Leader Snoke's brainwashing of us to get Luke Skywalker's location."

"I . . ." Kylo Ren paused. Rey's eyes narrowed. "No, that's not right."

"Oh, but isn't it?" snapped Rey, her tongue and voice feeling harsher than she had reason to. "That's all we've both been; just pawns. You say that you want to move past it all by destroying it, but how can that be so? Your family's legacy is what caused you to go down this route . . . and I just so happened to be attuned to the Force. Answer me this: would you have cared who I was or anything about me, if I had never been born with force powers? Because, I highly doubt it. I'd be just some random desert rat to everybody."

Kylo Ren stared with his lips parted and his eyes slightly widened before regaining his composure. His voice held a hint of brevity. "Regardless of the circumstances, it does little good to question what-ifs. Perhaps there are many similar to you, perhaps my passion for you-" Rey's cheeks flushed at his choice of words. The look in his eyes making it clear precisely what he meant as they stared each other down. "isn't for the best of reasons. But here we are, whether a result of decisions in the past or our own volition or a fate that the force has bound us too. What I sensed in you was the same loneliness that I felt all my life. Perhaps different in origin and in the background circumstances, but our reasons why were the exact same. We didn't feel like we belonged anywhere."

Rey froze. A pang in her heart erupted at his words. It felt as if a knife had stabbed her and froze her in place from the shock. _This is . . . true, but I must place what is best for all above myself. It didn't have to be me, but it was. I will defend what I've worked for so long, even if . . . I don't have a place in the conflict. Joining him would doom billions and end all hope._

"You're right about one thing, our backgrounds are different. You had a family, people who cared about you. Who loved you and would welcome you back with open arms." said Rey, scowling at him. Her posture straightening. "Like you said, my family sold me off to slavers for money. They were gutter trash. I had nobody; I thought perhaps my purpose would be something greater - perhaps a family like yours. But I have nothing and nobody, whether you choose right or wrong, you have a higher purpose and people who cared."

"No, I didn't." said Ben Solo, shaking his head. "None of my family knew what to do with me or how to handle me. I was always considered a problem to them and the weight of their legacy always bore upon me, even though they continued to mishandle and neglect me."

Kylo Ren scowled back at her. His teeth barred. "I told you, didn't I? And, he admit to it, didn't he? My loving uncle attempted to murder me in my sleep, no better than what Darth Sidious did to Darth Plagius. The only real difference is that what Luke Skywalker tried to do should be considered more morally repugnant than what Darth Sidious did."

"He said that it was pure instinct-" Rey's flimsy words stopped as Kylo Ren scoffed at her.

"Then, why did he lie about it to you in the beginning?" questioned Kylo Ren, Rey froze and her eyes widened. _I never even considered that . . ._ Kylo Ren sensed Rey's hesitation and pushed further. He unleashed the swell of hate and anger that he had bottled up and pushed in into the force around her. Rey stumbled and her eyes grew wider as she force pulled the lightsaber to her hands and gripped it tightly around her fingers. "Face facts, Rey, it was all his fault. He went into my bechambers at night, he broke my trust by violating my mind with his intrusion, and then - even if it's true that he hadn't intended to immediately kill me, which I do not believe for a moment - he pulled out his lightsaber and _considered murdering me_. And, what did my so-called loving parents do, after confronted with his betrayal of their trust and nearly killing their only child? They _forgave_ him and thought that I was too far gone into the Dark Side. They believed it was _my fault for defending myself_. I was never their son, I was considered a parasite that they never wanted. I am alone, Rey. I have no one; I've always been scared, frustrated, crying, and angry. Let's stop pretending otherwise."

Rey was subdued into silence by his cutting words. _It's true . . . no matter how I look at it, the one at fault was Luke Skywalker. He was in charge of training Ben Solo and keeping him safe, he failed at it spectacularly._

"Luke Skywalker was right, then . . ." said Rey, gazing at Kylo Ren in solemn detachment. Ben Solo balked and flinched at her words. His visage grew wroth as his eyes narrowed, his teeth barred further, and his closed left fist tightened to his side. "About the Jedi, I mean . . . they're a never ending cycle of failures by creating the conditions of their own downfall. You, him, Anakin Skywalker, and countless more . . . the circle doesn't need completion, instead it needs to be eradicated."

Kylo Ren's facial features relaxed. His heart thumped even harder at her words than before. "So . . . will you join me? Will you . . . accept me?"

Rey felt his heart ache and she felt overwhelmed with her own emotions that she hadn't properly adjusted to. _Perhaps it was all Supreme Leader Snoke's illusions and my naivety, but I'm here now and this choice . . . could have so many catastrophic consequences . . ._

Rey pushed her own feelings outward and shared them with Kylo Ren through the force. Ben Solo perked up and his posture straightened, but his facial features remained calm. _He's as unsure and scared as I am . . ._

"If I am to join you . . . and we would . . . become one with each other. If I am to make that decision . . ." Rey paused. She thought over her options as a spark of hope lit itself in Ben Solo's eyes. She stared at him seemingly impassive as her heart ached and the force connected their tumultuous emotions in a whirlwind that sang of love while whispering death. "I have but one condition. One promise that must absolutely be kept."

Kylo Ren stared at her pensively. His eyes yearning for more of her. "Name it."

Rey took a shuddering breath and then forced herself to speak. "Your empire -"

" _Our_ empire," corrected Kylo Ren, his lips moving upward transforming his beautiful visage with a soft smile. "You will not be at my mercy, you and I shall rule together. I will train you in the ways of the force, but we shall be equals in our . . . intimate relationship."

Rey blushed, but continued on. Her voice growing firmer as her resolve swelled. "What I want . . . is a world where people like you and I no longer have to suffer. Where children aren't bought and sold as goods or have their value traded based upon one's legacy, or vilified by adults out of fear and anger. A world where none of the lonely and oppressed children of the galaxy have to suffer, but are made to live free. The empire of your grandfather's was tyrannical and horrific. The Republic failed both of us . . . and I have seen what the First Order is currently doing. Is it truly any different from the Empire of Darth Sidious? I don't want power for power's sake, I want a government system that works to help people like us. That doesn't treat people only as pawns, but helps them grow and flourish."

"We suffered and thrived without anyone's help, because we triumphed over that adversity." spoke Ben Solo, his eyes narrowing. "Why should anyone else be-?"

"And leave them starving, helpless, and to suffer in pain just as we were left to fend for ourselves as children?" said Rey, Kylo Ren stopped speaking. There was a raw edge in Rey's voice. "What value would our empire be to anybody, then? We should absolutely pursue a better universe, so that others may have what we never did. If we don't do that, then what is the point? To constantly use the past to justify being unequal in the present due to personal experience is an anathema to growth, to helping each other, and to creating a better future for all peoples. I don't want cruelty for cruelty's sake, I want a more peaceful, improved, and equalized world than what the Republic gave us. What better way in destroying their hopes than proving that we can create a better standard? To prove them all wrong by creating the flourishing civilization that they never could? What better way to eradicate the past than by overcoming it's errors?"

Kylo Ren listened calmly, his hand still outstretched. A pang in his heart at her light tone and biting remarks. _She makes complete sense in this. It may just be the best way to challenge the unbroken chain and neutralize the farce of the Light and Dark forever._

"Very well, I do see the benefits of what you propose." said Ben Solo nodding to Rey and smiling at her. "I agree, I will work with you and achieve this for our new empire, but I have a condition of my own . . . we must eradicate the rebellion to its totality. We must destroy our pasts and create a new future without their follies. So . . . will you accept me? Do you accept _us_?"

"I . . . understand that." said Rey, taking a shuddering breath of her own and looking down at the ground. She shut her eyes tightly for a brief moment, before giving up and letting her tears flow. She looked at Kylo Ren in the eyes with her posture straightened. Rey smiled back at him, a genuine smile despite her tears. "I understood what it meant and I've always known what it would take to pursue what I want." She took his hand and held it firmly. Electricity and fire seemed to spark from within themselves at the mutual touch. It felt greater than the small finger touch they had previously. "I want this. I want us and I know that asking for the rebels to live would be too naive and foolish. But, I feel it from our shared loneliness through the force, we're meant to be together. This is _right_."

Suddenly, Kylo Ren shoved Rey away, causing her to fall on her bottom. Rey winced and looked up with narrowed eyes. Her eyes widened upon noticing Ben's outstretched hand having stopped a blaster fire in mid-flight. The blaster fire reversed trajectory and hit the imperial officer in the face, cooking his face alive as he fell to his death. Kylo outstretched his hand and Rey took it to pull herself up.

As she was being pulled up, unbeknownst to her, a set of blaster fire in a different part of the ship had shot through and killed Finn and his friends, the First Order's ships routed and blasted apart the remaining rebel pods, and the rebellion died within the short minutes of their personal conversation.

Rey and Kylo Ren held each other securely and kissed in celebration of their new union. The First Order and their sith-like ways would reign supreme for eons to come.


End file.
